The Crown, Old Town, Eastbourne

The Crown was probably the best of the 5 pubs I visited in the Old Town yesterday. It was also the busiest of the pubs, which gave it a much better atmosphere than the others. There are two simple rooms. The one to the left has all of the handpulls. Once past the group of bar blockers, I found there to be 4 cask ales. The regular beers are Harvey's Sussex Best Bitter & Gun Scaramanga. Two guest beers were Timothy Taylor Landlord & Burning Sky NZPA. The bar blockers actually turned out to be a friendly enough group with a decent sense of humour. The right-hand room is slightly larger. Again, there was another group of blokes all standing at the bar discussing football. To the rear are the toilets and what appeared to be a rather untidy storage area for the casks, with an enclosed garden to be found beyond that. My NZPA proved to be the best beer I tried during a day's drinking in and around the town. With its lively atmosphere and a few local characters present, I quite liked this pub and would probably rate it as my favourite of the day.

The exterior of the Crown Inn is rather drab and the smokers that are often standing by the front door add nothing to the initial impression from outside. Thankfully the L shaped interior is much more pleasant and the locals are harmless enough. The bar serves two different seating areas with the left hand side housing some standard tables and chairs and a few bar stools. Beyond there are a couple of sofas that face a plasma screen and a dartboard that annoyingly has no distance markings on the oche. The right hand side of the pub is made up by more standard seating, a quiz machine and another plasma screen. Surprisingly Sky Sports is not shown here, but there is always some background music playing. At the rear past the toilets is a room with a pool table where access can be gained to a few picnic tables. There are also a few steps that lead up to an unexpectedly large grass covered beer garden where some more picnic tables can be found. These are well spaced out and ideal for families who want to grab a couple of beers whilst their children play on the swings and climb the trees. There is often a barbeque here on sunny weekend afternoons and most weekends there is a bouncy castle. The sloped rear of the garden affords lovely views of the South Downs and I would say that there aren’t many better outside drinking areas in Eastbourne. Along with a standard draught selection the bar supports four hand pumps. During my Thursday afternoon a couple of weeks ago these were drawing Harvey’s Best, Wadworth’s 6X, Shepherd Neame’s Spitfire and St Austell’s Trelawny. I’ve always found the ales in here to be very good. The food is limited to homemade pies, sausage rolls, quiches etc. that are found on the back bar. I’ve had a quick snack in here a couple of times in the past and found the food to be very good. Food is also served on the quiz nights which usually have a world theme, eg Cajun or Far Eastern. I’m not entirely sure but I think that the quiz takes place every other Thursday. Beer festivals are also held here over some bank holiday weekends. I’m not certain about the closing times, but I have never been asked to leave at 23:00 so I gather that there is a license until at least midnight every day. The staff are friendly enough and the manager is extremely friendly and popular. This is a decent pub that is worth a visit, especially on a nice sunny day.